Pumpking

Issue 28

The carriage came to a stop mid-air three streets from my house. It was a warzone here. Flames had raged across the houses like a forest-fire, like a bomb had dropped and flattened everything.

I could see wreckage, burning debris; hollowed out cars; broken by smouldering trees, curtains and dirt trampled in the yards. Thick noxious smoke rolled out of houses; people ran through the streets, screaming and hurt. My home street was completely engulfed in the inferno. I couldn't risk getting any closer; I'd choke to death from the fumes.

And there I sat, the cause of all this- the harbinger of this horror. Like a little, useless princess in my pumpkin carriage in the sky; watching the common people run around, unable to help or do anything.

Dogs screamed in yards, trapped by high fences, burning alive because their owners had fled. Cats had already fled and birds lay broken, torn on the streets; twisted and dying from the initial shockwave.

I felt the sobs and tears scratching out of my throat. My mind struggling to take everything in. Smoke roiled in thick clouds; turning the sky to muted tones of red and grey.

Rescue hadn't even started yet, police and fire-fighters ran around, trying to assess the extent of the damage; catch houses on the edges, stop the spread of flame, evacuate those they could save.

Right in the centre, my home.

I sat, dumb and frozen, knowing that it was all my fault.

I'd never thought Bob would actually... he was like a big dog, all bark and no bite. I'd always been... naïve? I'd let myself keep a bomb in the backyard because I'd put a face and personality to it- I'd grown so complacent, forgetting how much of a curse this symbiote was.

My fist broke against the side of the carriage wall; I pounded against it again and again, creating a hollow knocking sound of my pathetic rage. Every soul lost was a notch upon my flesh.

"DAMN YOU!" I threw my body against the side of the carriage, not sure who I was angry with more, my own idiocy or Combustion. I had never thought he might attack Bob. I had never thought about anything like this happening. I'd never prepared for this sort of eventuality.

The carriage wall fell away under my fist, leaving me exposed to the soot and billowing heat below. I fell to my knees, staring into that swelling maw.

But wasn't that the problem? Not planning; not conceiving of these scenarios?

Why had the killer targeted me? Did he have any idea what it would cost to hurt me? The causalities from civilians that might get caught up in a battle with my powers?

Perhaps I should just let him kill me instead of avoiding the fate he had in store for me- if this was the price of that destiny...

"Dion, what are you doing here?"

I looked up; knowing my face was a mess of tears and snot, bright sunlight whispered through the bleakness outside and Daystar floated outside the broken wall of my carriage, his suit was a mess of blood, gore, damp from water; soot... it had seen better days.

"This is my fault."

"Oh, Dion. It's not," He reached out and touched my face, wiping the tears away, "You had no part in this senseless destruction."

I sobbed harder then, "It was Bob."

I guess that didn't make a lot of sense to him because he took the moment to pull me against his chest, gently rocking me like a child.

My tear-fest died down and I swallowed guiltily, "You don't have time to waste comforting me—there are people who need help down there."

He nodded, rolling his thumb across my cheek, "I know... You should get to safety, Combustion might still be around here."

"But I can't just leave- this is where I live..."

"And it will be where you die if you don't go. He's trying to antagonise you Dion, after all this time looking for you, he's not going to stop until he gets you. Don't give him the satisfaction."

That stunned me into numb silence; I think my shock and confusion showed on my face because Daystar frowned, realizing that he had told me something I was supposed to know. Whisper.

"Why is he targeting me?"

"I have to go," And he dropped back, like I'd chased him out. What the hell?

"God damnit!" Whisper and his fucking secrets.

I found a safe place to land and expanded the carriage's holding capacity. At first I got a few confused, scared looked, but when it was clear I had a vehicle and I was getting people to safety, I was mobbed. I'd never been so close to so much desperation and loss before. Women clawed at my hands, men thrust their children at me- screaming and hurt, everyone was so desperate to get out, to save their possessions.

I suddenly appreciated how hard helping people like this was; how did the police and firefighters do this as a job, day in-day out?

Paramedics, volunteers; everyone just threw themselves into this chaos—I didn't even know what more I could do but help ferry the lost and wandering to the emergency barricades a few streets down.

I caught glimpses of Daystar amid the mess; diving into burning buildings to rescue kittens, lifting a water tank over a house about to explode. Carrying three, four people off a roof. His invulnerability and super-strength notwithstanding, the man had no fear. He was calm, cool, collected and people responded to that.

I tried to emulate him, but I didn't think it was much better; I was a brainless, untrained idiot in a crisis. I gardened and cleaned for heaven's sake!.

I finished clearing out the street I was on when I saw other members of the pantheon arriving. It'd been almost two hours since I felt Bob's essence snap back; work had been slow for me; but now the Pantheon professionals swept in. they flew from the sky, maybe from the orbital satellite, or from the other side of the world, I had no idea.

Glacier, Mistress Frost, Mach Five, the rainbow serpent—holy shit, they were heavy hitters.

I was standing by the emergency tent when they arrived, they exchanged a few words with Daystar and off they went to work.

The two elementalists drove the fire back, soothing the core of the blaze and moving to the contained edges; I guess hoping to prevent further spreading and then move in to the heart of the fire.